Slices of life in Cambodia

This week, World Vision bloggersNate Pyle and Stephanie May Wilson join us in Cambodia! We'll be visiting two of our communities to witness the transformation that child sponsorship brings into the lives of children and their families, and sharing our experience with you.

Phnom Sruoch is a World Vision community here in Cambodia that we're hoping to expand in the near future. Currently, many families are living in poverty, which leads to children dropping out of school so they can help their families survive. Many families also struggle with food insecurity. Here are a few of the children we're meeting …

Choura’s family faces hunger up to four months out of the year. That hunger has left her stunted. She is 12 years old, but looks more like a 7- or 8-year-old.

“Theary quit school because the family is poor," says her mother, Phally. "We don’t have money to buy her clothes and school material." Now Theary helps around the home doing chores like preparing dinner.

Four-year-old Reatrey’s father left for Thailand to find consistent work to support his family. After a month, he hasn’t sent any money, so to have food for the family, Reatrey’s pregnant mother, Sokhen, borrows from a middleman, whom she will repay when the money from her husband finally arrives.

It's bath time for Pheareak, 3 years old, who lives with his grandmother Savoeurn because his mother works at a garment factory. The long hours and commute time keep her living closer to the city and away from her child.

The other World Vision community that we'll be visiting this week is called Leuk Daek. We've been working in this community for fifteen years, and child sponsorship has been so transformative that this summer we're closing the community! Our work there is done. Here are some of the children whose lives have been transformed through sponsorship …